Starting Fresh on DigitalOcean

If you aren’t that well versed in hosting services, let me point you in the direction of my favorite hosting provider: DigitalOcean. If you don’t really know what you are looking at, I recommend you focus on DO’s cost and speed. At $5 USD/month, 20GB (SSD) of space… What more can you ask for? If you need to increase space, it’s very simple, however you cannot downgrade! So start small and upgrade as needed. Each server is called a “droplet” (cute naming association with the brand).

I followed all of the tutorials at Digital Ocean for the 16.04 Ubuntu installation, I will be a bit more specific to how I personally tackled my set-up and the software used.

Tools:

You are not required to use these tools, but I prefer them, and specific commands/functions may only apply to these programs.

Step 1: Sign-up

If you are just interested in testing out the services, the first $10 is on me! Click this link and you will automatically have a credit applied to your account.

Sign-up for an account on DigitalOcean using the referral link, payment information is only used for confirmation, you aren’t charged anything until the end of the month or when you run out of credit.

Step 2: Create Droplet

If you are planning on using your server to host multiple WordPress accounts, DO NOT use “One-click apps”, you will only be able to do a single install.

Distribution: Ubuntu 16.04.1 x 64

Size: $5/mo

Datacenter region: (whatever is closest for you)

Block storage: N/A

Additional options: Backups (if this is just to play around, don’t check this option, but later on I would recommend turning it on)

Hostname: (pick a name that is relevant to what you are hosting, it is unique to your account. I chose ubuntu-512)

After creating, you should receive an email telling you what your droplet’s IP address is, and the associated password of the root account.

Step 3: Run Git

If you are on a Mac, you can use the terminal as it is already set up. However, in order to use SSH in Windows we need to download a new software. In the DigitalOcean tutorials, they use Putty, but I prefer to use Git Bash (see tools). After you have downloaded the .exe, run the installer using all of the default settings unless you know what you are doing.

Open up “Git Bash” and enter the following command into the console:

ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_ADDRESS

You’ll be asked if you are sure that you want to continue connecting, type yes. You will then be asked to enter the password that was sent to you. If you copy the password from the email, you will be able to paste it into the console by right-clicking. You will not be able to see what you are typing into the password field (no *** or any other characters will appear). Press enter. If it is correct, you will be prompted to change the password.

Step 4: Add User

Follow DigitalOcean’s tutorial on how to set up a new account that you will use, their directions are clear. Continue to use Git Bash for these commands.